‘The Killing:’ Another day, another suspect

“Day Four” effectively removed Jasper and Kris from the suspects’ list. The seemingly incriminating video sent ’round the school the day before turned out to be not what it appeared to be. When Holder and Linden showed it to them at the police station, both were immediately relieved. It turns out that the pink-wigged girl in the video was actually Sterling, trying on Rosie’s persona.

Another revelation: Kris Echols, the junkie, recognized Holder as a fellow traveller. I suspect that wasn’t just because of his Bieber-esque wardrobe choices.

Linden talked to Sterling about the episode. Sterling told her that Rosie had changed after breaking up with Jasper — she would vanish from fourth period; she would spend time on a bus that took her far from her neighborhood; and she would lie to her mom, telling her she was spending the night with Sterling when she wasn’t. Sterling’s theory — which Linden buys — is that Rosie was seeing someone she didn’t want anyone to know about.

While Linden and Holder were unravelling that, Mitch and Stan were at the funeral home, selecting a casket for their daughter, selecting one that went for $3,800 — a substantial expense. Then, continuing their worst day ever, they met with Linden at the cop shop. She asked them some questions about who Rosie might have been seeing — she believes it was an adult. When she stepped out of her office for a few minutes, they looked through her window and caught a long look, through an open doorway, at the bulletin board covered with photos of Rosie’s body. They saw the ligature marks, the closeup of her eye that indicated hemorrhaging, the image of her curled in the trunk, still covered in water. Linden came in and immediately closed the door, blocking their view, and apologized.

Later on, when Mitch and Stan went to see a priest about Rosie’s funeral service, she was struck by the similarities of the wounds on a sculpture of the crucified Christ and those on her daughter’s body. She ended up confronting the priest over God’s apparent abandonment of her daughter.

Linden sent Holder to ride the bus that Rosie would take on her afteroon excursions, a trip that Holder saw mostly as a waste of time. He’s also starting to bristle over taking orders from Linden. This would have been his case entirely, after all, if Rosie’s sweater had been found a day later. (One imagines, though, that, without Linden, Rosie’s body would still be in that car, unfound — Holder isn’t exactly tearing it up.)

While he was on the bus, making the occaisional phone call to Linden to complain about being on the bus, she went to the boat, where she found Rick. He paid a surprise visit to apologize for being a jerk on the phone and to bring her wedding cake samples. He had arranged for Regi and Jack to be away for at least five hours so that they could have some much-needed alone time.

Their time together hit a rough patch when the case came up. “It’s not happening again, is it? Chasing after a dead girl?,” he said. “I can’t compete with a ghost.” All very tantalizing. There’s clearly a case that she still can’t let go of, which seems to be connected to the drawing that she has in the files that she’s taking with her. (Maybe she’ll revisit that in Season 2?)

A few of Stan’s secrets were revealed. He had bought a house for the family, a surprise that he planned to spring on them. With the funeral expenses, he can’t afford to keep the house — he’ll have to sell it. That skeezy-lo0king guy who works for him offered to take care of Richmond “like old times;” Stan responded, “I don’t do that any more.” Later on, he met with a guy he seems to have worked for in the past; the guy peeled off a wad of cash and gave it to Stan, who didn’t want to take it, but he did. There will probably be repercussions for that — maybe he’ll be going back to the stuff he did in the “old times,” after all.

While he was getting the money, Mitch went to school to talk to Sterling about Rosie’s apparent secret boyfriend. Sterling said she didn’t know anything, and left for class; Mitch wound up sitting across from the altar that Rosie’s locker had become. Mr. Bennet, the teacher, emerged and sat with her, then chatted a bit about Rosie’s love of poetry.

Meanwhile, Linden found a pack of cigarettes stashed in Jack’s pillow, leading her to return to Rosie’s house to see if she maybe had some secret stuff squirreled away in her pillows. She found a stack of letters hidden in a globe-shaped lamp — the letters, which appeared to be love letters, were from — dun-dun-DUN! — Mr. Bennet.

AND Holder’s ride on the bus dovetailed with that discovery. He finally ran across a driver who recognized Rosie’s picture; she would ride to the end of the line. Holder followed a kid from her school off the bus; he led him to an after-school program — that basketball program tht Richmond founded — where we learned that Bennet is a coach with the program. Again — dun-dun-DUN!!

On the campaign trail: Richmond is hemorrhaging pretty much everything a campaign can hemorrhage — poll numbers, cash, etc. — because the mayor is hammering him with his connection to Rosie’s murder. Richmond shored up a little bit of that by reluctantly accepting a $50,000 donation from a wealthy jerk who hates the mayor and wants nothing more than to see him loose. (Gwen set up the meeting, getting her senator dad to set it up.) The donation allowed Richmond to invest in some advertising.

An intriguing moment: The mayor had a moment with Richmond and Gwen, telling them they were lucky to be together, because, “in this racket, it’s a miracle to find someone you can trust.” His tone, though, suggested that at least one of them is not trustworthy — my money’s on Gwen.

Along that line, Richmond’s fired aide Jaime was recruited by the mayor; we learned near the end of the episode that Jaime is, in fact, a plant in the mayor’s campaign, something that Richmond seems to be keeping from Gwen. So there are some serious trust issues there.

What did you think? Do you think Bennet had a role in Rosie’s death? If not, are any other suspects on your radar? Post your comments below.